34 weeks 3 days

All is still well with the baby. I did mention that I have been very grumpy for the past few months to see what my doctor had to say. I'm starting to think I might need some meds or something. But she didn't seem concerned, so moving on. It looks like this baby will for sure be an induction this time around. I was under the impression that I would have my membranes stripped at my last appointment. But I found out today that since my induction date is scheduled for December 31st (Monday), my last appointment will probably be the 26th or 27th. My doctor will be on vacation then & it's still too early to strip my membranes. Totally not what I was expecting. I thought for sure I would have the baby on the 27th, but it doesn't look that way now. Oh well. Just cross your fingers that Perry will arrive by 11:59 pm!

Davis Update

Since Davis' doctors appointment, we kept him off wheat for 2 more days. That seemed to do the trick. After 2 days, I was curious, so I gave him some bread. No hives. So later that day I gave him a Nutrigrain Bar. No hives. So I was starting to think that maybe he doesn't have a wheat allergy. The next day (last Thursday) we got his test results back...negative for wheat allergy. At that point, we had figured as much. He hasn't broken out since. Lane said it was probably just some sort of virus that happened to coincide with us feeding him. Weird. But the good news is that he doesn't have a wheat allergy, so I don't have to keep him on a special diet. Dodged a bullet there.

Pictures

Recently we had Missy take our pictures & I just got them back! I just love them!

For anyone in the area interested, she is doing a Mini Session special for $100.

When- Dec 1st starting at 3pm. 

Location- Cedar Ridge Nature Preserve

What you get- 5 digital negatives delivered via email by Dec 5th + option to buy more

How Are You Feeling?

I'm constantly asked "How are you feeling?" or "How is the pregnancy going?" and I give the same answer--Really well. Can't complain, no sickness. But what I'm really thinking is--I'm way too tired, my body is physically exhausted and I'm grumpy all the time! Unfortunately, Lane & the kids are the only ones who hear my complaints. So just for record keeping sake, let me expand on each one:
1) Way too tired- I find it sad, that by 9 or 10 in the morning, I'm struggling to keep my eyes open & just praying that Davis will be ready for his morning nap so I can lay down. It's pathetic. I'm usually up every day by 6am and I go to bed a lot earlier than most people I know, but it doesn't seem to help. And if I do get a second to lay down, that means that I won't be getting a shower until around 2pm. There's no good solution.
2) Body is physically exhausted- Even sitting on the couch is no relief. I pretty much need to be sleeping to relax. I feel like Perry is so crammed in there & constantly poking me. I keep thinking I might have this baby early. But she's only weighing about 4 lbs right now & the sono lady said there's still plenty of room for her...great. Davis is not going easy on me these days. He is always hanging onto my legs, which makes it really hard to walk around. I have to end up carrying him around most of the time. And on top of that my stomach feels like it's having 1 constant contraction nonstop.
3) Grumpy Pants- This should probably be my new nickname. I don't remember being like this when I was pregnant with Davis. But boy am I grumpy. Every day I'm mad about #s 1 & 2 and my mood is pretty sour. By the end of the day I have just had it. My patience is running thin and I am very unpleasant to be around. Whenever Lane is available to help out, I pretty much lay there in a coma refusing to get up, even if the kids are running around like wild animals. Like today, Davis didn't take his morning nap. I keep thinking he might be in the process of switching to 1 nap a day. Anyway, he finally went down around 1pm. I was expecting a good 2-3 hour nap. Instead I got 40 lousy minutes. I almost cried when I heard him on the monitor. I was so peeved by that point that I told Lane to load the kids up & drive around. I didn't care where to. So off we went for about an hour. Did he fall asleep? Not until we pulled into the driveway. Did he stay asleep? NO. And lately I feel it necessary to reward myself with a milkshake if I feel overly stressed. I've had 3 in the past 5 days if that tells you anything.

So sorry for this horribly negative post. I just want to document how pregnancy makes me feel so I can remember to never get pregnant again :)

Carnival

We went to my mom's school carnival tonight. Elliot really wanted to get her face painted. I find it funny that out of all the pictures: heart, balloons, Hello Kitty, Elmo, she chose Spider Man. You can't even tell what it is, but she was so excited about it.

32 weeks

Another check up today- baby is measuring about 4 pounds. Her head is down. Now I can envision her kicking my ribcage with  her left leg & my pelvis with her right fist..at the same time..ouch. It's hard to believe in just a little over a month, she will be here! I'm excited, but at the same time not ready. Let me clarify. I'm excited to not be pregnant anymore, but not ready to be a mommy of 3! I've made sure to let Lane & everyone else know that this will be our final child. He still has his fingers crossed for 4, but I think he's coming to terms with it a little more every day. In fact the other day he said-It will be nice when you're not pregnant anymore or ever again. We'll be able to do so much more like, horse back riding, white water rafting, etc. As if we do those things ever anyway! Here are 2 grainy pictures. It's really bad lighting.

Day 4 of Hives

Davis woke up today with hives again. This baffles me because yesterday we didn't give him anything with wheat. Although last night he did eat a big bowl of ice cream & I do remember reading that sometimes ice cream can have wheat. But you wouldn't think it would have enough. Anyway, I decided to make an appointment for him. Lane was against this because he said they wouldn't be able to tell you anything we don't already know. Allergies with kids is a mysterious thing & I understand that, but I'm a definitive kind of person & if there's a test that will tell me, then I want to know. I figure it wouldn't hurt to try. So we went in & discussed all the issues with the doctor. He said we could do the food panel test, but I could tell he didn't think it was a great test & Lane agreed with him. He also said we could test him for wheat allergies since that's what we think it is. I was happy with that, because I'm pretty sure it is & I just want it confirmed. We won't know the results until Wednesday or Thursday but if it comes back negative then I'll probably ask for a referral to an allergist & go from there. For this test, he had to get his blood drawn. 

 They put him in this papoose so he wouldn't be able to move around too much. It looked so sad. When they first stuck the needle in, he didn't seem to care, but once they got it positioned into the vein, he was not having it. Can't say that I blamed him.

After all the drama.

Later that day we went to the store to see if we could find some gluten free items. They pretty much all run the same price of $4.58. There wasn't much to choose from so we just got a loaf of bread. Ha! We also got some Rice Krispies cereal since Cherrios is now out. We already have Chex. I think the gluten free stuff works because he had a piece of bread & milk for lunch & no hives showed up. What an adjustment this will be. Hopefully he'll start liking fruits, vegetables & meat again. Otherwise he will wither away.

Picky Eater/Allergic Reaction

We have a picky eater on our hands! When Davis first started eating solid foods, he did great. He would eat whatever fruit I cut up for him & would still eat baby food vegetables. But after 2 weeks, all the things he would eat before, he would now turn his nose up at. He pretty much limited his food intake to milk, cereal, any kind of bread, nutrigrain bars, yogurt and Hebrew National hot dogs (closest meat product). This has been so frustrating, but at least I have a few staples. Then things got worse yesterday. When he woke up from his morning nap, he had hives all over. They looked like this.

 As you can see, it doesn't seem to affect his mood.

 After some Benadryl, he's fine.

Sorry for the crack shot, he was just so squirmy.

Anyway, at first we thought he was allergic to blueberries because that morning he ate blueberry pancakes & later in the day I gave him mixed berry Nutrigrain bars for the first time. Usually he has strawberry or apple Nutrigrain bars. But then today I only gave him milk & Cherrios for breakfast and he had the same reaction. Later today we gave him whole grain bread before giving him his milk & he broke out. So we have pinpointed his allergy to wheat. This is pretty much my worst nightmare considering his short list of foods he can eat just dwindled to basically nothing. This stresses me out so much! It's so strange because it JUST started yesterday, whereas before he hasn't had any problems with it. Lane thinks it may just be whole wheat that gives him problems because he just ate some crackers & nothing happened. But still. If any of you have had to deal with this kind of allergy, please let me know.

The stats aren't looking good either. They said that 30% of kids grow out of it by age 3 (2 more years!), 60% by age 8 & 70% by 12 years old.

The BIG 3-0

I thought I would wake up on my birthday (Nov 2) with a sad feeling, but instead I just felt neutral. I'm actually quite happy with that. I don't feel any different from yesterday. I always wondered how I would react to turning 30. Luckily there is no depression going on :)

Lane started my day off right by getting donuts. Can't go wrong there. But then he had to go to a training from 8-12pm, so that was a bummer. I took Elliot to her friend's birthday party, so at least we had something else to do. That night we celebrated by going out to eat. Originally we had planned to go to the Brownstone in Fort Worth. We thought a fancy restaurant was in order. But when Lane heard that I had planned on ordering a hamburger, he said we might as well go somewhere more casual. And so we did. We ended up at Chuy's, which I was just as happy with. I've been wanting to go there for months now. I ate entirely too much, but that's ok. After dinner we headed to Four Day Weekend, an improv show. It was really funny. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I didn't get any pictures.

I have to say on Lane's behalf, I spoiled myself rotten. I got some clothes, jewelry, shoes, a purse. Pretty much whatever my little heart wanted. You only turn 30 once right? Here are a couple of pictures of my loot.

 I wasn't originally looking for running shoes, but Lane informed me that mine were really ugly & clunky. He's right on that one, so I was happy to oblige. Those black ones have like a 4-5 inch heel. I'm still pretty shaky, so I will have to practice walking in them. I finally found a pair of leopard shoes. I've been wearing this beat up pair from Target for the past 3 years. It was time. And I'm so excited to wear those boots. When I tried them on, they felt like butter. I knew it was meant to be.

This purse is my big gift. I actually got it about 2 months ago, but didn't allow myself to wear it until today. I have never had a nice purse and I'm slightly obsessed with this one, which is a good thing since I plan on using it forever. And my mom got me a wallet which I was due for. All in all I scored big time.

Last night I had a girls dinner which was so fun. I always love getting together with my girls. It was pretty funny, when I walked into Amy's I noticed she & Regina had the same shirt on. They got them at different stores, but they were the same color & style. Then Regina pointed out that Amy & I actually had the same shirt on, but different colors. She was right. Guess we all have the same taste :) Cheesecake Factory is always a hit with us. We closed down the place. They made them sing happy birthday to me, which I hated. There is nothing more embarrassing than having to sit & stare at the people singing to you. Oh well, I endured. Thanks to all the people who made me feel so special on my birthday!

Train Ride

The past week has been so wonderful because Lane has been off work. We've tried to squeeze in something fun each day for the kids. Today we went on a train ride in Fort Worth. We've done this before & it is so much fun. It's a longer ride which is nice and there's a great view the whole time. We went around 5pm and the weather was just perfect. I tried to soak it all up. We brought Lane's dad & Brenda along with us too. We all had a great time.