36 Weeks Pregnant and an Update

Once again time has managed to get away from me and I have tons that I need to post updates on.  Casey and I were both surprised to find out that’s one of the holidays he gets off from work so we enjoyed our nice, long weekend together.  On Monday the weather was nice and since Brady has started pedaling on her tricycle, we took her up to the middle school to ride it around in the parking lot.  Unfortunately once we got up there she did very little riding but had lots of fun jumping and skipping with her daddy and alternated between pretending to be a flamingo and a kangaroo.

Brady riding her tricycle

Jumping like a kangaroo

Doing the pink flamingo

High Fives with Daddy

Daddy and Dudey are spectators

Daddy riding the tricycle

Daddy and Brady pushing Care Bears on the tricycle

On February 21st I had my 36 week appointment (I was 35w5d) and another ultrasound.  Casey had a manager’s meeting in San Antonio that day, so my mom and Brady came with me to my appointment.  Once Brady realized we weren’t there for her, she was excited to be able to see her baby sister on the TV and it’s all she talked about when we came home.

Because the baby was pretty far down in my pelvis with her head down, we weren’t able to get any pictures from the appointment.  I had my first cervical check and was a fingertip dilated (opening of my cervix) and about 70% effaced (thinning of my cervix).  He didn’t mention anything about station but said this was a good start and not to expect anything to happen because women can go around like this for weeks before delivering at term.

Playing in Nana's hat before bed

On Wednesday, my mom and I took Brady to her class at Rolly Pollies before heading to the Austin Children’s Museum.  Brady had a lot of fun with the train set, the blocks, and the fake food in the kitchen.  It was so hard to get her to move from one section to the next because she was having such a great time.  I’m glad that we made time to do these extra little trips with Brady prior to the baby being born and that she got that undivided attention from Mama and Nana.

Self portrait

Making food in the play kitchen

Offering a hamburger bun

Placing her order

Playing with the balls

Playing in the hen house

Nana taking a rest

Belly Shot 36 weeks

I usually do our taxes with Turbo Tax but this year with my job as an independent contractor (search engine evaluator – I was doing this 22 hours a week since June) AND my blogging income and all of the 1099s and expenses that that entailed, I wasn’t feeling too confident about doing our taxes this year.  I plugged in our information to Turbo Tax and my preliminary estimates showed us owing $6,000.  My gut was right and it was time to consult a professional – I emailed several of them the weekend before and got quotes and more information about the CPAs before scheduling an appointment.  So Friday the three of us met with the CPA who seemed quite confident she’d be able to do our taxes and minimize our payment.  That night we went to Tony C’s for some pizza so I could do a review of the restaurant for my other blog.  We’d been before and the food was consistently good again this time and was a fun meal out together.  Little did we know it’d be one of our last just the three of us.

On Saturday, Casey worked outside trying to repair/replace some of the tiles on the upstairs balcony that have fallen off with the high winds.  We had one tile fall last year or the year before that we never replaced but last week a couple more fell off with several more appearing they were ready to drop at any minute, so Casey went to work trying to repair those.  Unfortunately the wind was gusting and getting on the ladder wasn’t very safe and the tiles weren’t adhering as planned, so he called it quits.  Kevin (who has been staying in our guest room for the last three months) also stopped by to pick up his stuff and move out.

Sketching up landscaping plans

Then on Sunday, we went to lunch at P. Terry’s before going to Home Depot and the Natural Gardener to pick up supplies and brambles to start planting blackberry bushes in the backyard and redoing the landscaping in the front yard.  This was a lot of work but Casey managed to get it all done by himself (since I wasn’t in any condition to help him) and I worked on cleaning the guest room, putting clean baby clothes away, and rearranging things.  Casey and I were both exhausted after all of the work and were in bed by 10.

(to be continued with the birth story)