36 Weeks

Woo hoo!  I feel like I'm coming into the home stretch!  One more week and this baby is free to come at any moment!



Pregnancy Highlights:

Size of Baby:  Baby Brother now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon, whatever that is) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long (well maybe, Leah was 18 1/2 at birth at exactly 39 weeks).

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  +1 pound this week so +22 overall

Maternity Clothes:  YES!!!!!

Gender:  It's a BOY.....Lane Louis Hendricks!

Movement:  He's still most active at night!

Sleep:  Getting up a couple of times to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night but sleeping pretty good because I'm so tired!

What I Miss:  Sleep!

Cravings:  Nothing new.....pumpkin bread/muffins!

Symptoms:  Contractions on and off (I had a really long one on Monday but the doctor didn't seem the least bit concerned) and my mid/lower back is killing me by the end of the day!  The burning part of my stomach is still there but hasn't been near as intense this week.  I think it's because he has dropped some although he is kicking up under my ribs and lungs to wear I have to lean back really far sometimes!

Best Moment This Week:  Making some progress at my appointment on Tuesday!

•1 cm dilated (want to get to 10 cm) (I was already 2-3 cm with Leah this week!)
•50% effaced (want to get to 100%)

•-2 station (want to get to a +5)
•head down

No Cavities!!!

This morning Leah had her six month dentist check up and she did AMAZING!  This is her fourth dental appointment (every 6 months) and this was the first time that she sat in the chair like a big girl and let them clean her teeth and do anything they needed to do!  I was SO SO PROUD of her!  She wasn't scared or shy at all, answered all of the questions, hopped right up in the chair, put on the headphones so that she could watch Tangled on the ceiling and then got to end her visit with a ride on the Merry-Go-Round!  She wasn't the least bit scared of the sucker thing ("Mr. Tickle" they called it) or the teeth cleaning thing or anything else for that matter!  Bubble gum was her flavor of choice for her tooth cleaning session!  My baby girl sure is growing up!

Dr. Grandpre said that her bite is a little off from the pacifier, but he said that we got rid of it at an early enough age that it should correct itself so he wasn't the least bit concerned!  When she bites down her top and bottom teeth don't line up.  Instead, there is a small gap in between her bite where her top and bottom teeth should touch.  Again, though, he said that this should correct itself so it's nothing to worry about!  They could tell, though, that she used to have a pacifier, that's for sure!

He also told us that it's time to start flossing!  At her last check up her teeth weren't quite touching yet, but now that they are flossing is on our to do list!  She LOVES playing with floss so I don't think this will be a problem at all!

They said that they plan to do x-rays next time since she did so good today, but I may hold off on this!  I don't know if I'm quite ready to expose her to x-rays just yet!  I need to do a little more research first!

I can't believe how much she's grown over her last four visits!

Little Red Riding Hood

This afternoon Leah and I read this!

Of course this lead to some dress up fun!

I was EXHAUSTED this afternoon and really, really, really wanted to take a nap (or at least sit down and relax)!  I layed down with Leah in her bed but she REFUSED to close her eyes (no surprise there).  Obviously, no nap was taken in our house today!  Well, when she decided that she wanted to play Little Red Riding Hood, I thought this was the PERFECT opportunity for me to lay in her bed, read a book and pretend to be the grandmother!  Ha!  Leah had a different idea!

Yep!  She wanted to be the grandmother who laid in bed and read while I was BIG Red Riding Hood!  Oh, the things we do for our children!

Yellow Day

Today was YELLOW day at preschool!



And, just so I don't forget before my weekly update on Thursday, here are my stats from my doctor's appointment this morning!

• 1 cm dilated (want to get to 10 cm)
• 50% effaced (want to get to 100%)
• -2 station (want to get to a +5)
• + 1 pound (up to 142, +22 overall)
• head down

Best Friends

Leah & Zoe

Here's their photo from their "Best Friends" photo shoot on Saturday!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday

Best title ever, right?  Ha!  It's been a somewhat busy last few days!  Christelle emailed me this morning wondering if I had gone into labor because I hadn't blogged over the last few days so I thought I better update!  No baby yet!  I have an appointment tomorrow and hopefully then I'll have some idea of when our little guy will be here!

Friday
Leah's friend Maddie spent the day with us while her Mommy and Daddy were at work.  We love having her come over on Fridays because it helps keep Leah entertained!

Saturday
Luke worked in the morning, brought Subway home for lunch and then we packed up and headed to Folsom to visit our friends Jason, Lindsay, Zoe and Hudson.  Lindsay and I had made an appointment to get the girls pictures taken for a "Best Friends" themed photo shoot at a local children's boutique.  Of course, we had to do some shopping too while we were there!  They have a really fun play area for the kids so the girls were on their very best behavior!  We had pizza for dinner at their house that night along with another family.  Hudson is just shy of five-months-old and Leah LOVED him!  She came up and gave him several kisses while Luke was holding him!  Precious!

A little funny.....the six-year-old little girl who was there asked me during dessert (a bowl of ice cream that I was SHARING with Luke) "Why do you eat so much?  Is it because you have a baby in your tummy?".  I only had TWO pieces of pizza while everyone else had three!  Ha!  Kids say the darndest things!

Another funny.....Lindsay and I ate in the kitchen, standing up while tending to the four kiddos who were eating at the table.  The guys were eating in the living room, sitting on the couch, in front of the tv watching football.  At one point one of them made the comment "This reminds me of college, eating pizza and watching football."  Lindsay and I looked at each other and asked them exactly what part of college this reminded them of because we were in no way reminded of college as we ate and tended to the young ones!  The guys must've been having WAY too much fun!

Sunday
It was a cloudy, lazy day.  We had our friends Mitch, Christina and Ella over to grill out turkey burgers for lunch so that Christina could see the nursery.  Leah had lots of fun with Ella and was so sweet and gentle with her.  She's going to be a super big sister!  Luke was Daddy of the Year and let me lounge in bed and read that evening!  This was something I really needed to do!

Monday
Today was Mommy/Daughter day so Leah and I went to watch The Lion King.  She LOVED it!  This has been on our to do list since it came out a little over a week ago but today was the first day we could squeeze it in!  I'm glad we did!  She's now in full character mode as "Nala" while I'm "Simba" and her Daddy is "Mufasa".  She and her Daddy have been chasing each other all over the house playing lions!

35 Weeks

I'm 35 weeks today (and looking (and feeling) mighty large)!

Pregnancy Highlights:

Size of Baby:  Baby Brother is now over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (like a honeydew melon).

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  +21

Maternity Clothes:  Yes, yes, yes!  Who am I kidding?  I haven't tried squeezing in anything non-maternity all week!  I even broke down and bought some maternity tank tops at Target because I was tired of having to pull my regular ones down over my belly constantly.  The only thing non-maternity I'm wearing these days are pajamas.....Luke's white t-shirts and boxer briefs.  It's the most comfortable thing I can fit in when the sun goes down!

Gender:  It's a BOY.....Lane Louis Hendricks!

Movement:  It took me eight months, but I have completely figured out his little schedule!  He is sound asleep when I wake up in the morning and then is wound up when I lay down in bed each night.  (This is when I do my kick counts.)  I mean wound up!  His schedule is completely backwards!  We'll need to nip this right away!  He also LOVES the music at Leah's dance class and dances right along with the girls!

Sleep:  This is a now a thing of the past!  If I'm not up twice a night with heartburn, I'm up twice a night to go to the bathroom.  And if it's not that, Leah's waking up twice and needing me to lay down with her to go back to sleep (like last night for some unknown reason, the second time I just took my pillow in and fell back asleep with her).  Practice, practice, practice I suppose!

What I Miss:  Sleep!  Who am I kidding again?  I'm EXHAUSTED!!!!!  Also, this heartburn thing is getting really, really old!

Cravings:  Just my venti decaf mocha frappuccino each morning and a Coke each afternoon with lunch!  I really look forward to this!

Symptoms:  CONTRACTIONS!!!!!  I'm starting to have more than a few a day!  Nothing painful but just reminders of what's to come!  I've also been getting cramps at the end of the day on the bottom of my stomach on either the left or right side (just one of the other at a time).  AND my least favorite symptom (besides the heartburn) is the spot that burned like crazy on the top right side of my stomach when I was pregnant with Leah (just under my right breast but on the top of my stomach) is burning again to the point that I'm having to ice it at night!  The ice isn't any more comfortable than the burning sensation but it takes my mind off of the stinging burn for a minute while it freezes!  This is from a nerve in my skin that severed or got pinched or something when I was pregnant with Leah and has remained numb and tingly ever since.  It hasn't bothered me this pregnancy until now!  Joy!!!!!  I googled this when I was pregnant with Leah and someone described the pain as if someone is stabbing a knife in you and pulling it in and out of the wound!  Bingo!  I couldn't have described it better!  It's that painful when it's at its worst!  I have extremely sensitive nerves all over my body so this is absolutely no surprise that this would happen to me!  The doctor says it's not common but also not uncommon.  One more thing.....my belly button doesn't seem like it's going to pop out but it is really tight and burns sometimes (the skin around it).  I can also feel a really hard spot right on top of my belly button.  This has actually been happening for a few weeks now!  One more.....my mid-back is starting to kill me!  I'm starting to feel the weight from carrying around this heavy heavy belly!  Oh the joys of the last month of pregnancy!

Best Moment This Week:  My sprinkle on Saturday was the best!  I'm just enjoying spending lots of time with my sweet girl.  This was my last week without a doctor's appointment.  I can't wait for Tuesday!  I'm hoping to be 2-3 cm dilated already (just like I was with Leah at 36 weeks)!  We also checked a few things off of our to do list this week:  hospital bags are 100% packed (minus the few things I can't grab until last minute), sheets are washed for Nana and Papaw's room, carseat is ready to go and the base will be installed this weekend, all of Brother's blankets, sheets and newborn outfits are washed and ready to go!  I really can't think of much more to do to get ready (besides getting Leah's schedule all written out for Nana and Papaw)!  We're ready to bring this boy home!

In Leah news.....she did AMAZING at dance class this afternoon!  She's finally starting to get it all!  Ms. Sandy even asked her if she had been practicing!  Why yes she has.....all over the kitchen floor!  :)  I'm so proud of her!  She is definitely there to socialize as well, though.  Today she went up to a couple of girls, pointed right at them and asked "What's your name?".  This was all right in the middle of instruction!

Leah & Leo

Today was "bring your favorite stuffed animal to preschool to share with the class" day as Leah's class studies how God created all the animals.  Leah chose to bring along Leo, the lion that her Daddy brought her back as a surprise on his last work trip to Las Vegas in August.  When I picked her up, I asked her what she told her class about Leo.  I got the same answer every time I asked (hoping for a different answer each time)....."Rrrrrrrrrrrr!".  Knowing Leah, this is probably exactly what she said to her class when it was her turn to share!

When I got to her classroom to pick her up this afternoon, she was showing me her collage that she made for the letter "C" and was showing me something on there and telling me that Mrs. Ibarra said something (I can't even remember what it was.....something about the picture of the flower that she had glued on her collage).  Anyways, Mrs. Ibarra was standing right there looking at the collage with us and told me that Leah always remembers every single thing that she (Mrs. Ibarra) says.  Yes she does!  I laughed and made the comment to Mrs. Ibarra that there's no telling what stories Leah goes to school telling about our family because of her outrageous memory and Mrs. Ibarra decided that we should make a deal!  She'll promise to forget half of what Leah tells her about me if I promise to forget half of what Leah tells me about her!  Ha!  No telling what stories she's already told her!

And just for fun.....Leah had lots of fun digging in my bedroom drawers tonight and putting on my jammies!  It was a complete ploy to delay bath time but was super cute none-the-less (although getting her to stand still for a picture was like pulling teeth)!

Circus Circus

On Saturday while Lane and I were being "sprinkled", Luke and Leah had Daddy/Daughter day and went to the circus!  From what I hear, they had tons of fun (although it looks like all they did was eat from their pictures)!  So much fun, in fact, that Leah has played "circus" everyday since then!  She closes all the windows in the living room so that the room is as dark as can be and she turns on her new light up toy that she brought home from the circus!  She'll then turn herself into either a clown with a honking nose or an acrobat and do somersaults all over the place!

Clumsy the clown (a name that Daddy and Leah came up with)!

Enjoying her beloved cotton candy!  Nana keeps this girl stocked up on cotton candy when she's not at the circus.....she mails her a couple of bags a week and has ever since Leah and I had to go on a mad hunt for some when her cousin Alec mentioned it earlier this summer!  :)  So to say that Leah LOVES her cotton candy is an understatement!

As if the cotton candy weren't enough, Daddy then treated his girl to a snow cone!

Daddy/Daughter day would not be complete without their signature silly faces!

Having fun with her new light up toy that I bet cost as much as her Dora kitchen!

Time for the second half!

Taking home all her loot!

After the circus, these two were off to lunch at Jack's so that Leah could chow down on her favorite macaroni-and-cheese!

No visit to Jack's would be complete without a cookie from Cookie Connection (before coming to visit Mommy)!

I really can't decide who makes a cuter Clumsy!

Sprinkled With Love

Yesterday my California bestie, Christina, hosted a "sprinkle" for baby Lane and I.  The moment I told her I was pregnant (with both Leah and Lane) she was already in baby shower planning mode (Christina also hosted my baby shower for Leah)!  I knew that this time around I didn't need a whole lot of new things and wasn't going to be registering so I had to decide between a "sprinkle" (a small baby shower) or a Sip 'N See (a shower held after the baby is born so that everyone can come and meet the baby).  I decided I wanted a very simple "sprinkle" and to get a small group together for lunch at Ettore's, a European cafe/bakery that is one of my favorite lunch spots/bakeries (their chicken salad is out of this world and so are their lemon bars).  Christina definitely went above and beyond and made the afternoon more than just simple!  This girl is the best!  Not only did she treat everyone to lunch, but she had the sweetest decorations.....way more than I was expecting!  I teared up when I walked in and saw everything!

The Invite

We had the private room, and everything was decorated just PERFECT!

Mommy-to-be!

The guests.....

Kara, one of my wonderful neighbors and Leah's babysitter Nora's mom!

Susan, Casey & Leiya ("Big Leah" as Leah calls her), more of our wonderful neighbors!

Lynn, who I used to work with at Bogle and miss getting to see so often, and Shannon, another amazing neighbor!

Me and Christina, one of the sweetest girls in the world!

Dessert!  Lemon bars, one of my favorite things in the world!  Ettore's makes the best!  When I was pregnant I CRAVED these things like crazy!

Surprise visitors!

Luke and Leah had Daddy/Daughter day and went to the circus and then out to lunch at Jack's (Leah's favorite, obviously) just down the street so they surprised us all and stopped by to say Hi!  I was so glad they did!  Leah even received a few gifts while she was there!

Shannon made the CUTEST cookies!

They taste as good as they look!

She is making all of my cookies for all future birthday parties!  :)

A few of the sweet gifts!

The sweet favors.....Leah has been enjoying her fair share of these!

My family was truly blessed yesterday, and I can't thank each of these girls enough for helping to welcome our sweet baby boy!