My Birthday and Other Pics

Yesterday was my birthday.  It was a nice day.  First off, I had an ultrasound at 8:30 (I have been measuring small at my last 2 doctor appointments so she ordered an ultrasound to check the size... everything looked fine at the ultrasound...).  So, Ethan was kind enough to go to work late yesterday morning so that he could take us to breakfast and then watch the kids during my ultrasound appointment.  We went to Corner Bakery for breakfast.  The kids did great!  (Those of you with kids know this is not always the case.  It's almost like they knew it was my birthday and were on their best behavior, hah!).  :)  We had a good time as a family.  After my appointment Ethan went to work.  In the evening, our friends Danny & Emily offered to babysit so that we could go to dinner kid-free!  We were so blessed by their kindness.  We went to Chi-Chi's (Yum!).  The food was delicious and we enjoyed our time just the two of us.  :)  We got home in time to put the kids to bed and then hung out with our friends for awhile that night.  It was a great birthday!

Birthday breakfast at Corner Bakery

 

Caleb and me

Julia and Daddy

 

 

Birthday dinner at Chi-Chi's (We ordered a small salad, small pizza, and the Southern Italian Platter which has lasagna, meat ravioli, and rigatoni with meat sauce). It was delicious!

 

 

 

Last Saturday we went to Porto's Bakery. We love going there and haven't been in awhile so it was a special treat.  We ordered our usual - breakfast sandwiches, potato balls, chocolate croissant, and an iced mocha.  Yum!

These two love each other...  :)

 

Daddy and Julia

 

Caleb and Mommy

 

The other day I made homemade hot chocolate on the stove top.  It was the first time for Julia to try it and as you can guess, they loved it.  :)

 

37 weeks pregnant TODAY (December 18).  So thankful that I have made it this far.  There have been some rough spots here and there...  I think it was at 19 weeks when my doctor started me on weekly progesterone shots (which are supposed to help you not go into preterm labor).  At 29 weeks I went on a medication called niphedipine because I was already getting a lot of braxton hicks contractions (I took this with Caleb and I think it really helped).  At 34 weeks I was having some symptoms of preterm labor so I went to the hospital and had to spend most of the night in the hospital until the contractions went down.  At 35 weeks I started getting itchy hands and feet (sounds wierd, but this can be a sign of choleostasis) and got some bloodwork done.  The bloodwork showed some irregularity with my liver which made the doctor think it was probably choleostasis and talked about possibly inducing labor...  I didn't feel peace about it and waited for some further testing.  Thankfully, after additional bloodwork it showed that everything was fine and I don't have choleostasis!  I am so thankful because this can be dangerous for the baby.  Anyway, since then everything seems to be fine.  I am no longer taking the progesterone shots and went off the niphedipine at 36 weeks.  At this point I am still getting braxton hicks but not necessarily more often.  So, this baby may surprise us and hang in there much longer!  As much as I can't wait to not be pregnant anymore, I am glad the baby is taking it's sweet old time and developing more.  Julia was born at 36 weeks and Caleb was born at 38 weeks.  I wonder when this one will arrive?  38 weeks is Christmas Day, so I'm hoping he/she will wait until after.