Doctor's Appointment Yesterday

I had my weekly doctor's appointment yesterday, and everything is going well.  Blood pressure is always the same (100/60 or 110/70) and my fundal measurement is exactly as it should be.  I mentioned to Dr. Smith that I have a lot of pelvic pressure in the morning and she figures that it's just because my body is getting tired of all the weight it's carrying.  Miss Baby Struik hasn't fully dropped yet because Dr. Smith can still move her head.  She commented that she could feel that Miss Baby Struik was growing bigger, and then she added that if I were a first-time Mom she would be concerned for my delivery...but I've done it before so she's not worried at all.  Umm...this baby needs to slow down!!  I don't want to deliver another toddler.  Don't get me wrong, this baby will be loved no matter what the size...but if you could choose to deliver a small baby or a big one, I'm pretty sure most people would choose a small one.  Only time will tell!

40 Weeks

T-minus 15 days.  My official due date isn't until August 2nd (Sunday), which is five days away, so between those five days and the ten day allowance to go overdue Miss Baby Struik will be here in fifteen days (or less!).  CRAZINESS!

My weight gain is 47 lbs and I'm feeling really good still, for the most part.  I'm not at all desperate for her to be born...I'm still enjoying being pregnant.  I love watching her roll around in my tummy.  It seems like each day her body parts get more and more defined as she grows in size (eek) and strength.

I think Miss Baby Struik dropped during the night one evening, because when I climbed out of bed in the middle of the night to do pee, her full weight dropped onto my bladder and I swear I almost peed right then and there.  Thank goodness I still have bladder control :).  Since that evening, I feel quite a bit of pressure/pain on my pelvis every morning until the early afternoon, at which point the discomfort/pressure/pain goes away.  It's really strange.  It doesn't bother me enough to want to go into labour though :)

I have a family reunion this weekend so I'm hoping to stay pregnant until that's over because I don't want to miss out...so either Miss Baby Struik makes an appearance tonight (could you imagine?!?) or she needs to be obedient and wait until after the weekend is over :).

Matthew says he doesn't want Miss Baby Struik to come out of my tummy because he likes having a pillow to lay his head on.  He often says, "because of your baby, right Mom?" if we're talking about why I can't do something (or why I weigh more than Jon now!).

And...that's about it for an update at 40 weeks.

21 Months Old

Sorry, Nathan, for a boring entry to document you being 21 months old.  Just making sure I make some sort of entry so I don't forget anything!

New words this month:
This (Dis)
Please (Piece)
Ice
Mouth (Mouf)
Donkey (Dan-ee)
Eyes
Thanks (Tas)
Candy (Tan-ee)
Bees
Boo (Cow)
Ugh (Up)
Doggie
Teddy
Yes
Baby

In the middle of June I stopped giving Nathan Restoralax in his bottle, and he's been totally fine without it.  Then, when we went camping at the end of June, I forgot to give him his bottle one night (June 29) and he didn't even realize it.  Thinking that it was then prime-time to drop his bottle, I didn't give him another bottle.  He asked for it once at camping and then the first night back at home, but didn't care when I gave him a sippy cup of water instead.  So nice!

Nathan loves playing hockey.  As soon as he goes outside with Jon after dinner, he right away grabs a hockey stick and practices shooting a hockey ball into the net.  Jon loves it!

Once a week or so, Nathan wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, like he's been tortured.  It's so sad.  I get out of bed and run to his room as quick as I can, so that he doesn't wake up Matthew or Kayla.  He's always standing in his crib when I get there, and then I sit with him in the rocking chair for one minute while he cuddles against me, holding his blanket.  I then ask him if he's ready to go back to his crib and he always says, "Yes."  I lay him back in his crib and he falls fast asleep.  It's so strange.  He probably would be okay if I didn't take him out at all, but the way he cuddles against me is so nice...and he's only young once.

Nathan can be a bit of a bully to those around him.  When he's in his 'bully' mood he definitely likes to pick on Matthew (seldom Kayla) because he knows Matthew will just cry.  He likes to push other kids' buttons, that's for sure.

Nathan loves it when he gets to see his Vander Ende cousins - he usually runs to my parents' back door when he hears them coming and gets so excited when they come in the house.  He's definitely the most social of my kids.

He can be such a great kid, but he can also have attitude.  He often giggles when getting put into time out, and tries to run out of it.  When he gets moved to his crib for time-out instead then he realizes that I mean business.

He loves picking up Lacey's (my parents' dog) poo.  As soon as we step into my parents' backyard he runs for the poo bucket and shovel and walks to the edge of the yard where she always goes and calls out when he finds a pile of poo to pick up.  If no one comes quick enough, then he starts shoveling it up himself.  Once it's all cleaned up, he has to be the one to carry the bucket and shovel back.  It's really quite cute.

Nathan also like to help in my parents' garden, picking blueberries, tomatoes, and beans.  He's really good at following instructions and knowing which produce is ripe enough to be picked.

Nathan is still very injury-prone.  He often trips over his own toes, scraping up his knees.  This past weekend, he somehow stumbled trying to climb over the chicken-wire fence into my parents' vegetable garden and chipped one of his front teeth on one of the poles holding the fence in place.  He's missing about 1/5 of the tooth.  I called the dentist on Monday to see if Nathan needed to go in, but they said so long as he's not bothered by it (with hot/cold food) and so long as it isn't discolouring then there's no need to bring him in.  Poor kid will just have a chipped tooth for the next four to five years.

Nathan LOVES swimming.  Every time we go to a pool he spends the entire time jumping in - and we don't even catch him, he goes completely underwater.

Nathan also loves jumping on the trampoline and he loves riding his balance bike.

He still has a nap each afternoon.  He typically wakes up himself after about an hour, but if he's sleeping longer then I wake him up after one and a half hours.  When he naps at my parents', he used to nap in a playpen but has gradually transitioned himself to sleeping on a bed.  I still try to convince him to sleep in the playpen, but if he's not changing his mind then he's allowed to sleep on the bed in the room.

Nathan learned how to do a somersault this month!  He started himself by putting his head on the floor, so all we had to do was teach him to move his feet closer to his head and jump.  It only took a few minutes and he had it all figured out.

Hayward Lake

I love it when people with kids my kids' age post about awesome things to do with kids in the lower mainland that are free :).  Driving anywhere in our Tahoe costs us a lot of money (that thing guzzles gas like crazy), so if I have to pay admission on top of it I'm typically not interested.

This past week, I took the kids to Hayward Lake with my Mom, Melissa, and Jackson.  We all piled into the Tahoe (to save toll money and gas money!), and left our house at 9am.

What a great lake/beach!  The beach has awesome sand, which worked really well for building sand castles.  The lake had a purely sandy entrance, with very few rocks/pebbles and NO SEAWEED.  I absolutely love lakes where you don't have to 'worry' about where you step (I really, really, really dislike touching seaweed).  It was a tad breezy when we were there, so if Matthew and Kayla were floating they quickly drifted away from our 'area', but other than that, we all had a fantastic time!

38 Weeks, and a Comparison Between Pregnancies

I cannot believe I'm 38 weeks pregnant already!  Time seems to be flying by now.

I'm doing really well.  The weather seems to have cooled slightly, so I no longer have swollen feet.  The only time I'm feeling uncomfortable is if I have to get off of sitting on the ground.  It's a little awkward, so I don't know why I even sit on the ground in the first place.  

My favourite thing to do is watch Miss Baby Struik punching and kicking me.  If I'm sitting on the couch at home, it's quite likely that my stomach will be bare because I'm watching every single movement, and pushing back at her when she's trying to push out at me.  It's great.  Like each of my other pregnancies, I'm trying to really enjoy every single moment in case this is the last time I'm pregnant.

(Above & Below):  Reclined on the couch, looking down at my belly.

I've finally packed a hospital bag for Miss Baby Struik and have started to gather items for a bag for me.  I'm not expecting to go into labour before my due date, so I still have a couple weeks to get things together.  

Matthew continues to be the most interested in feeling Miss Baby Struik move.  He often will come up to me and will push around on my stomach just to wake her up so he can try to feel her.  Kayla doesn't seem to be as interested, nor has the patience to wait for a kick.  Nathan loves to point to my stomach and say "Baby", and is quite excited that he gets to sit by Miss Baby Struik in the car.

And because I'm a 'numbers' and comparisons kind of person, here is a comparison of me at 38 weeks with all three pregnancies (at 38 weeks because I was induced at 38 weeks with Matthew and Kayla's pregnancy):

	Pregnancy #1	Pregnancy #2	Pregnancy #3
	Matthew & Kayla	Nathan	Miss Baby Struik
Pre-Pregnancy Weight:	138lbs	128lbs	133lbs
Weight Gain @ 38 Weeks:	50lbs	44lbs	42lbs
Belly Circumference @ 38 Weeks:	46"	42.5"	43"
Baby Birth Weight(s):	6lb 2oz + 6lb 4oz	10lb 8oz	TBD

And some pictures, in order of pregnancy (And yes, I've kept the exact same outfit just so that I could have a picture of me wearing the exact same thing at 38 weeks each time!):

Getting Ready for Miss Baby Struik

It's been a busy week over here, getting ready for Miss Baby Struik.  As I did with Nathan, I've been determined to have this house at its cleanest before Miss Baby Struik arrives.  I have a list on the counter of tasks that need to get done, and each day I tackle a few more items on the list.  Now that I'm on maternity leave, the last thing I want to do is feel like I'm just sitting around and not 'working'.  Yesterday, a sale on storage containers at Costco sparked a toy purge and re-organization of the toy room and craft supplies...something that was not even on my 'to-do' list.  When Jon came home from work, he just rolled his eyes at me :).  He knows that every now and then I like to re-organize things...which he tolerates even though it means he can't find things.  

I finally found a take-home outfit for Miss Baby Struik yesterday too, so that's another thing off the list.

Jon tackled our Tahoe today.  We were only using the middle bench for the three car seats, and had the entire back row stored away in our garage.  Today, he took out one of the centre bench seats and put in the back row.  Bye bye, room for groceries, hello four car seats!  We are now able to take Miss Baby Struik home in our Tahoe.  Matthew and Kayla moved to the back row (Kayla in a booster seat, which Matthew was quite upset over.  He's just not quite heavy enough for it yet!), and Nathan moved to the centre of the middle bench, beside 'Baby'.  They were quite excited to sit in their new seats tonight.

A lot done, a lot to do still.  Don't make that delay your arrival though, Miss Baby Struik.  The sooner you would like to meet us, the better :)

Ultrasound #3 Results

I had a doctor's appointment today so I was able to get a copy of my ultrasound report.  I love comparing the results to each of my other ultrasounds from other pregnancies and similar times to see how they compare against each other.  I had an ultrasound done at 36w 2d with Matthew and Kayla and Miss Baby Struik is measuring practically exactly what Matthew did at that point, which is interesting.  Matthew and Kayla both, however, were delivered smaller at 38 weeks than what the 36 week ultrasound measured them at at that time, so the results can't always be accurate.  It's still fun to look at though.  I'm so happy that Miss Baby Struik is 'normal' for size.  Maybe I'll have to buy a newborn-sized take home outfit after all (I know, still on my to-do list!).

For those interested, here are the results:

FETAL ANATOMY
Heart/Stomach/Kidneys/Bladder/Spine/3 Vessel Cord/Diaphragm - All Normal

DATA
Heart Rate                     160
Lie/Position                    Cephalic
Placenta                         Posterior
Est. Fetal Weight             2902g (6lb 6oz)

MEASUREMENTS 
Head Circ.                      328.0 mm   36w1d
BPD                                 91.0 mm   37w2d
Abdominal Circ.              318.5 mm    35w2d
Femur                              69.0 mm   36w3d

GESTATIONAL AGE
By Last Menstrual Period              36w6d
By Last Ultrasound                       36w1d
By Current Ultrasound                  36w2d

RADIOLOGIST COMMENTS
There is a single live intra-uterine gestation.  Growth as expected.  Too late efor intracranial and other detail.  Placenta is posterior, os clear.  Cervix is closed.  Length is 35mm.  AFI is 246mm, normal.  Vertex presentation.  Fetus was active during this examination limiting the exam.

37 Weeks (tomorrow)

This is a little bit crazy how fast time is going now.  Only about a month until we become a family of six.  The other night Jon and I were discussing how weird it would be to have a newborn again.  I'm sure I've said it before but I'll say it again anyways...I'm nervous!  I feel like a first-time Mom again.  Not for the delivery, because I know exactly how much that is going to suck, but for the parenting aspect.  EEEK.  Don't get me wrong though, I'm also excited.  Just also nervous.  But excited, too.

Anyways, I had an ultrasound today to see how big Miss Baby Struik is.  It was more to provide me with the right frame of mind going into the delivery...if she is going to be big like Nathan then I want to be mentally prepared for that.  The ultrasound technician says she is measuring average at 6lb 6oz so far (at 36 weeks 1 day), so if you account for the typical weight gain of 0.5 pounds per week then she'll be a nice 8.5 pound baby.  I'm not going to complain about that!  Not tiny like Matthew and Kayla (6lb 2oz and 6lb 4oz) and not huge like Nathan (10lb 8oz), but right in the middle.  Just right :)  I'll get the ultrasound report on Thursday at my next appointment so it will be interesting to see exact measurements.

I've gained 42 pounds now.  This might be my pregnancy with the greatest weight gain.  It's crazy too, because I think I eat significantly less than I ate with the other pregnancies.  Oh well, "as long as it all comes off" is what Jon says.

Since going camping all of last week, I now have permanently swollen feet.  They hurt at night because they are so swollen.  Jon has been great about massaging them for me each evening for a few minutes, to give me some relief.  It actually helps reduce the swelling too.  It's nice to be done with work because I could only imagine what sitting at a desk would do to them.  I'm assuming I'm having trouble with swollen feet this time around because of the insanely warm summer we've been having.  I've actually been coping surprisingly well, I think.  Last night was our first night back from camping and I managed to fall asleep in our 32.5 degree bedroom, and fell asleep after being woken up by the kids a total of about 7 separate times, too (4 for Nathan, 2 for Matthew, 1 for Kayla)!  I was a tad tired today, so as soon as I can get the last of my thoughts out then I'm heading to bed.

35 weeks.  We were about to take the kids swimming at Greenaway Pool when I remembered we still needed a picture taken.  I thought it was the perfect opportunity to capture what I look like in my maternity bathing suit...especially since I've worn it so much this summer (wearing it two times a day every day we are camping!).  I'm self-conscious, but at the same time I'm not.  At least with a tight-pregnant stomach you can't see my stretch marks from previous pregnancies (as easily!).  Wearing a bikini after this pregnancy will...well, probably never happen.

36 weeks (and 5 days).  Yes, it's hard to remember to take weekly photos when you (or your photographer) are not home often.  End-of-the-year + summer vacations = Jon and I not being home in the evenings together very often.  Now that school is done, it should be easier to get the last few photos done, on time.