36 weeks already!

Tomorrow I will be 36 weeks pregnant. Already! And also finally. It feels like I've been pregnant forever, but it also feels like the past few weeks have flown by. I feel very prepared and ready, like if the baby comes tomorrow I'd be fine. Even though we don't have anything really done, haha. I have not set up the infant car seat in either car. I have not set up the cosleeper in our room. I have not packed a hospital bag, or a bag for Audrey while she stays with dad and Lisa when I'm in the hospital. I haven't arranged for the pets to be taken care of. I *have* washed all of the newborn clothes (the gender neutral ones) and blankets and burp cloths, so those are ready. I only bought my first box of diapers two days ago.

I'm sucking in.

Speaking of diapers, at this point, we are preparing to use disposables at least in the beginning because of our washer situation. It has somehow actually gotten worse. Our clothes all come out smelling moldy and gross, and now the whole drum smells like mildew no matter how much I clean it and leave it open to dry after each wash. I will never buy a front loader again!! The plan was to save up to buy a washer and dryer set (top loader, not 'high efficiency', just a good old fashioned washer), but at this point I think we might just go ahead buy one ASAP on the credit card so we can get Audrey back in cloth diapers and get the new baby in them when s/he is born. I swear every time I throw a dirty diaper in the trash I feel like I am throwing away money. After not having that expense for so long, it really came as a shock when I went in to buy diapers for Audrey and spent $40 just like that! Ouch!

How adorable is this baby bun? I LOVE HAVING A GIRL.

We made a few halfhearted efforts at potty training over the past couple of months, but last week we made a real dedicated effort to get Audrey potty trained. Unfortunately, we think she is just not ready. She LOVES sitting on the potty. She loves reading books about the potty, talking about the potty, watching us go (FUN.), and we even tried putting her baby alive doll on it since the doll "pees" when you put water in her mouth. Our potty training attempt was the 3 day naked training (we did it the days it stormed since we wouldn't be leaving home) where you just keep the baby naked from the bottom down all day long and keep encouraging them to use the potty. Audrey loved this. EXCEPT when it was actually time to go. When she had to pee or poop, she would get off the potty and just start walking around the house crying until eventually she had an accident. This happened every single time she had to go for 2 days. She begged us to put a diaper on her, she even pulled the diapers out and tried to put it on herself. Poor thing. At first we thought she was just nervous and it would get better throughout the day, but it never did and we didn't like hearing her cry, so we stopped. I am torn between trying again in a month, or just waiting 2 months so that she will have time to adjust to the baby and then get moving on it. I also don't want to have to go to the trouble of training her only to have her regress back once the baby is here.

Look at that hair!

Other things...I had an appointment yesterday and am now on weekly appointments. yay! I love getting to check in every week so know that everything is going well. As of yesterday, I've gained 22 pounds, which I'm happy with. Unfortunately, we still have a ton of Halloween candy sitting around so I am constantly popping chocolate and other junk throughout the day. I am *this close* to throwing it all away. Probably once I finish eating all the Butterfingers. :) The babies heartbeat was at 121, still on the low side. Last appointment it was higher at 145. Wives Tales say that low heartbeat means boy, higher means girl. The Chinese Gender Predictor says Girl. My mom dreamed it was a girl, but then yesterday said the belly looks like a boy. Josh thinks girl....I go back and forth daily still. I'm thinking boy now. Little Joshua. So sweet. Oh, the doctor also went ahead and did a quick ultrasound to make sure that the baby is head down, even though both he and I already were pretty sure it was head down. And we were right! Head down and ready to go. If I can keep the baby that way for another week, it'll probably stay that way since they don't usually flip after 37 weeks, plus I have a small torso and there isn't a whole lot of room to flip anyways. It was reassuring to have that ultrasound, though, just to confirm. I am still on for a VBAC. My doctor keeps saying I'm such an easy patient. The only thing I'm worried about now is that I won't go into labor on my own. I'm like, REALLY scared of that. Originally, I thought that my doctor wouldn't induce at all for VBACs, but he told me last week that as long as I dilate to 1cm on my own, he can induce using various different methods. With Audrey, I delivered at 40 weeks exactly and had not had any contractions and wasn't dilated at all, so I think my fear of that happening again is probably a legitimate fear. I am doing all of the things I know of to get ready, like going on long walks and bouncing on my yoga ball, but for now that's all I really can do. I just hope my body will not fail me since I can only go to a little after 41 weeks without another C-Section. I try not to worry and get ahead of myself, but well, I'm me and that's just what I do.

At Cox Farms

Girl has good balance!

so look...I've updated once a week for two weeks! I'm on a roll! Maybe again next week? We can hope!
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