Newest on the baby situation

Today we had our doctors appointment and it went pretty well. We found out that I'm dilated to about a 2.5 (which I'm thinking is more like a 2 based on some of the last appointments) and I had my membranes stripped. It was a lot easier than I thought it was all going to be. I've heard quite a few horror stories about that part of it all. It was kind of funny because I've been worried about them doing it with all of the house stuff going on and I've been worried that I'd end up putting me into labor before all of the flooring was actually put in. As were sitting there asking questions my doctor starts feeling for her position and stripping my membranes and slowly looks up and half way through the process asks... "Oh did you want me to do this?" I freak out because in the back of my mind I'm thinking "I can't have this done... what if it puts me into labor tonight?!?!?!" I ask him what the process details and he says "just this..." and does it. At this point I'm in shock because he potentially planned my night without my consent but did it all without the paint that I thought it was going to consist of. I figured at that point I couldn't do anything and we'd just feel out the night and so far it's been pretty normal. I've had what I think might be regular contractions from about 5:30 to about 7:35 but they have pretty much stopped and consisted of very little pain. At this point I'm still feeling pretty good. I talked to a few of the girls I work with this afternoon and they are all excited for me because everyone they've known to have the procedure done (including themselves) goes into labor about 72 hours after the it's done. So they're once again starting to "bet" on when it will happen. So far this last part has been pretty less than typical so I don't plan on them being right on but I think it would be pretty exciting if they were close. Plus... once we get these floors done tomorrow nothing will be holding me back. I'd love to shoot for Friday-Sunday because the doctor I want is on call but we'll see. I've come to the conclusion that she's comin when she's good and ready and not a moment sooner. I just pray it will be less than a week from now.

We asked the doctor what he thought about her size this week and he said that he predicts about 8lbs 6 oz. I'm thinking if he's right I'm a little scared but we'll see. It could definitely be worse.

Overall I think that's about all the news we got today. Not too much else is going on. I think between the house and to doctors I've got you all covered. We don't have any computers set up in the house because of the floors so as soon as we get those back up I'll post pictures of how everything looks. I'm excited to get home tonight because they left us a message saying that they got 2 of the back rooms done and everything else should be completed tomorrow. They did finish the kitchen before Paul and I left for work today and it looks GREAT!!!! I just wish our walls looked good with them. I hope we'll be able to get that part done soon. It's really coming together. I just hope we can keep up our momentum.

I'll keep you guys posted if anything changes!!! Pray for good news... for this weekend!!!

The newest on the house

So a little update... I'll try to write more tomorrow because we're going to the doctors and will hopefully have news about how things are progressing but we'll see. This is just what we've been up to since Saturday... You're gonna laugh at us!!!

Everything so far has been a little crazy. Paul and I decided... I'm still trying to figure out why... to replace our carpet this weekend so Friday we went into the store to look around, Saturday we went in to finalize some stuff and upon discussing what we wanted to do we were told that it would be much better to install hardwood floors before the carpet because there would be a ton of dust and within 10 minutes we were purchasing both not just the one. That night we had a guy over from the company measuring the kitchen to see what we needed and set us up this week for installation. We're lucky they could do it all this soon. I'm really grateful that they were so willing to work with our schedule. To get things going we've been moving things out of the house since Sunday night and to complicate things even more we decided to also rip out our fireplace AND our baseboard heaters... knowing full well that winter can potentially last another month or two out here. I don't know what we're thinking... We've pretty much removed all heat sources from the house except the heater in our bathroom and a space heater we bought from Wal-mart a few months back. We're gonna see quick how good of an idea this was... I think we'll be ok for now because the two heaters we do have should work pretty well and we've been working with a guy from our ward on getting forced air so I think we'll be ok. We just need to get some realistic costs for the conversion and see what we're actually gonna pay to do it all. We'll also probably save a lot in electric because we don't have the chance to waste any of our heat by leaving it on when it should be off. This could in fact work in our favor. We'll have to see how this goes...

Back to the floors... Our installers got in today and took a bit to get going but it seems as though they've done quite a bit since I left for work. I don't think it should have been a two day job for the wood portion but in my last conversation with Paul it sounds like they've got about 3/4th of the job complete should finish it all tomorrow. We are ripping out our carpet ourselves to save money, so we've been trying to keep up with them in getting everything finished so they can move into putting them in as soon as they've finished the wood. At this point we still have 3 rooms to pull up so it's going to be another late night and early morning. If we get this all done tomorrow don't plan on talking to me before 12 Thursday afternoon because I'm determined to sleep in!!!! I'm so hoping I'll be that lucky!!!!

I know as some of you are reading this you're yelling at me for working too hard but don't worry... Paul is not letting me do the hard work. I've been mostly packing boxes and moving blankets and pillows. He has let me pull up staples but I'm not really that good at it. I think last night when we were working in the baby's room he did about 3/4th of it before I got done with my part. It really doesn't seem to matter though. I've been on my feet TONS over the last few days and they baby doesn't seem the least bit effected. I just seem to get more and more energy the longer I'm up. I don't get it.

We go into the doctors tomorrow to see if anythings changed and I'm hoping it has but I don't want to get my hopes too high because I haven't been feeling that bad. A couple of times I've been just completely shot and it was getting hard to get up and walk around because I've been getting a little bit sore but over all I still can't say it's been all that hard. I'm hoping that she'll want to stay in until we at least get the floors done (which should be Thursday) but wont I certainly wont complain if she tries to come a little sooner. We'll see. We'd love to get more done in the house if we can while every things out but we don't want to push it. I'm kind of hoping the Lord will put a stop to our drive to improve and send her on her way down here so we can take a break. I think as long as I have my couches and a bed I'll be ok with whatever we try to do next. We'll have to feel it all out after tomorrow's appointment but I don't think we'll push it. It would just be REALLY nice to get as much done as we can now while we don't have furniture in the way and so we don't have move it all back out later. Hopefully tomorrow will tell us A LOT!!! I'm prayin for it to...

I'll let you all know what's going on as soon as we find out!!! Thanks for reading!!!

PS... Survey questions... we're trying to decide if we should try to replace the fireplace with a gas burning one now, later or at all. It would be one that was more for looks than for actual heat because we're gonna get forced air like I said but we don't know what to do just yet. My main question for everyone is: Would you ever purchase a home without a fireplace and if so do you think it would be a lower value if there wasn't one? Let me know what you think??? You're opinions will help A LOT!!!

So as of last Wednesday....

We went to the doctors this week and we're sad to report that nothing much has changed but are really ok with the news because that means we have a little more time to get things done around the house. We really need to get her room done because right now the living room is overcome with all of her stuff and I just need some space!!!! We were a little disappointed to hear that not much had happened in the last week because I had been having some pains and was hoping it'd mean something but no such luck. I'm still feeling really good and still can't complain about how everything seems to be going so all in all we're in a really good position. We were also excited to learn that based on her position this week she's not measuring as big as she was last week so we might not have anything to worry about when it comes to her size. I've been really afraid of going all the way to my due date and even a little over because she has the chance of being really big. I don't know if I explained my concern about this in my last post but we have been told that Paul was almost 11 lbs and I was just barely under 8 lbs so based on those stats we're looking at potentially big babies. Scott and Casey (Paul's brother and his wife) just had a little one that was just over 8 lbs too so we know that they run in the family (I'd also like to note that he was 2 weeks early and was still that big!!)

Everyone keeps telling me that I shouldn't worry about the first one being too big because she'll just get my body ready for all the rest if we can get her out naturally. I don't know how I feel about that advice but I'm incredibly relieved that we have a little less to worry about. We'll see how much I gain between now and our next appointment. I'm shooting for no more than a pound.

While we've been anxiously waiting I've also been told not to be too disappointed that we haven't had too much of a change because a lot of people have been telling me that they've been the same way. It seems like the majority of the people I've talked to say that they didn't really have any "symptoms" until the day before or the actual day they started into labor, so we'll see. I may just get lucky and not have to deal with a lot of pain before we get into the tough sttuff... one can only hope!!! I've also heard that people who have it really rough in the beginning of their pregnancy have it mild to pretty well at the end so I'm hoping that's got some truth to it and that it's not just a myth. I think after 30 weeks of puking I deserve a break!!!! Haha!!!

I think after this last appointment I've finally calmed down and am more relaxed about everything. I was REALLY hoping for something to happen this weekend (March 1st) but it doesn't seem like too much is going to happen this soon. I've pretty much come to terms that she takes after me and she's just gonna be stubborn. I guess at this point we know what to expect for the next few years!!!! I just hope she doesn't wait and come on the 12th because that's our anniversary and I want to try to keep that just our day. I think we'll need the day to ourselves a lot more over the next 50 or so years and even though we haven't done a ton to celebrate so far it will become more important once there are others in the picture.

We'll see how things go. It's gonna get crazy here over the next couple of weeks. I just hope we can get everything done now that we have a little more time!!!!! Well keep you posted and let you know if anything changes. Love you guys!!!

Ok... Now that time has been found...

So I know I've been terrible at updating this even though I was supposed to be doing it for the purpose of keeping all of my family and friends in touch. I promise I'll do better especially after the baby's born.

So lets see... what's new...

We are about 3 weeks away from our due date and even though we feel like we need the full amount of time we are getting pretty anxious. I can't believe how much life has already changed and she isn't even here yet. I was at home earlier today and was walking from the kitchen to the living room and happened to glance up at the swing we put together last night and couldn't help but think to myself how out of place it seemed to have that sitting in my living room. I almost thought to myself "who's is that?" It's going to be interesting trying to adjust to everything else that is involved with having a baby. I think it will be a lot easier once we have her room put together.

Over the last few months Paul and I have been working hard on two of the rooms in the house to get them done before the baby comes. We've completely underestimated the amount of time it takes to remodel a room and quickly found that it's hard to balance work, life, and extra maintenance on the house outside of our normal routine. It's truly been an experience and one that I hope to never come across again once we finish everything we want to do. The main problem with what we've been working on is trying to get through the stacks of wallpaper that have been put on our walls. We are finding that the previous owners of our home not only had a special style of their own but that they also liked to experiement with different styles through out the 17 years that they lived there. I would hope that anyone who reads this, who is thinking about redoing a room or potentientally remodling their home would strongly consider NEVER putting up wall paper unless they intend to live in that house until the day they die. I will at this point never buy another home that had wallpaper on the out most layer of the wall, and on the same accord I will never wallpaper a room in any home I live in no matter how good of an idea it may seem at the time. Please remind me of this post if I ever try to say it's something I'd look forward to doing.

As for the rooms we are hoping that soon we'll hear back about our windows and we need to get started on picking out a carpet. I was hoping that we'd have the whole house done before we got around to putting new stuff in but with the amount of time just these two rooms have taken we we'd probably be moving out by the time we'd get to put it in and really enjoy it. One day we'll get moving on that. I'm hoping it will be soon but we'll have to see what happens with the baby being just around the corner.

As for an update on the baby. Like I said we are still a few weeks out. Some days I feel like things are progressing great and that she might be here sooner than we thing but other days it feels like there's nothing going on and we've got about 5 weeks left. At our last doctor's appointment they said that I was on track and that things seem to be going well. She's not completely down all the way so she still has a little work on her own to do before we get a little closer but my body seems to be responding to the minor contractions I've been having over the last few weeks. We're getting there but still happy to take what time we have left. With all the excitement over the last few weeks with the rest of our family members having their babies it's been hard to be as patient as I need to be but I'm not at that incredibly uncomfortable point that you see some women at and you know that they are just done. I don't think I look like that just yet but then I also don't think I look all that big until I see the pictures Paul's been taking for all of you guys. I'm just hoping that I'm at home when labor really seems to start and things get underway. I'm trying to work as close to the day as possible so we'll see what happens. It's not like I really get to pick how this whole thing completes itself.

Well... I need to jet. Time is running out and I should probably get back to doing things around the house. I don't know if I'm nesting or what but it's hard for me to sit for long periods of time. I'm pretty sure it's the belief that the more I move around and am up on my feet maybe the sooner she'll come but we'll see. Hopefully I'm losing a little bit weight with the new motivation to be up and walking but it seems as though I'm either getting bigger or she's growing quite a bit each week. I'm hoping it's more me than her because it seems like these Vreeken babies can get pretty big... and that's not something I'm looking forward to.

Slowly catching on!!!

So I think I've finally got a little bit figured out!!! I'm really starting to like some stuff. I just need to figure out picture posts and stuff but I think I can get that. I have to thank my friend Maryanne for all of her help so far. She gave me a site that helped me set up the headder on my page. If anyone is interested its... http://www.scrapblog.com. You just go in design a page and then save it as a jpeg. It's pretty easy and they practially have everything right there for you. I'm gonna keep playing but hopefully we'll have this figured out before the baby comes. As for now I need to jet so I can get some food and finish getting ready for work. Love you guys!!! 

I'll update more probably tonight!!!

Argh!!!

So I was playing with this last night and I changed some stuff around and completely deleted all of the stuff I figured out!!!! I'm frustrated... I need a good 4 or 5 hours to just sit down and work on this thing... We'll see. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon!!!

Thanks to everyone who's helped so far!!! It's been great!!!

Not sure what I'm doing here...

I'm still trying to get this place figured out.... It takes me a while for stuff like this...

Let me know if you can help!!!